Monday, 20 October 2014

Devil's Double Choc Malt Cookies from Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food.

Ok Just going to say it.

How good is my photo?!?

I can't take total credit for it. I had help from a lovely little one who is much better at this sort of thing than me and she supplied the flowers to cheer me up. How beautiful are they??? I love them.

Last week I was asked by my big sister to bake a cake for 30 people for Sunday lunch. Yes, I said 30. You read it correct the first time. Of course I said I'd do it... who can ever say no to their big sister?! If you're the youngest (like me) you adore your older sister from when you first sat outside her bedroom door watching her put her make-up on thinking that all you ever wanted to be when you grew up was exactly like her. So yes was an easy answer when she asked.

I'm sure you've all heard about my tiny oven so how was I meant to bake a cake for 30 people in it you ask? I had a plan to make two cakes. And my plan also consisted of a lovely little lady to come and help me bake all afternoon.

We made a dark chocolate mud cake and a white chocolate mud cake (I will blog about these cakes in a future post... I promise there is more to come and much more frequently). But it totally wasn't fair of us to bake all afternoon and not actually end up eat anything deliciously home-baked and naughty so it was a completely logical idea when we decided to make cookies.

Early that morning when I went to the supermarket to get ingredients (oh by the way... Chocolate is super expensive!?! Cadbury what happened!) I also added ingredients onto the list for these decadent cookies from Jamie Oliver's new book Comfort Food (by the way this book is BEAUTIFUL!) which I had been eye-ing off for a while and what better excuse than now to make them. I needed to pick up a few ingredients I'd never made cookies with before; Horlicks which is a powdered malt drink and condensed milk. I've used condensed milk a heap of times before but not in a cookies so I was super keen to see how these would turn out.

The cookie dough was a tough one to stir... my lovely helper ended up with a blister on her finger :( but totally worth it (I think) :) they were fudgy, rich, malty and just like every home baked cookie should be... chewy in the centre. They made you want a hot cup of tea or cold glass of milk. YUM. And they were a melt and mix recipe which I LOVE! it meant the hand held mixer didn't have to come out of the box and the clean up was super easy.

I defiantly recommend you give these a go - they have smashed up Maltesers inside them... how can these taste bad?! You can also freeze the raw cookie dough so you can bake them in small batches so you always have freshly baked cookies only 15 minutes away.

You will be super impressed with yourself after making these. Make ice cream sandwiches with them for a cheeky little dessert when you have friends over or just have them as a decadent afternoon tea treat. mmmm think I'll go and get myself one after all this talking about them.

And a quick but BIG THANKYOU to my little baking helper over the weekend! You are amazing!!

Devil's Double Choc Malt Cookies from Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food.

Makes 24

50g unsalted butter

200g quality dark chocolate (70%)

1 x 395g tin of condensed milk

25g ground almonds

2 heaped tsp Horlicks

200g self raising flour

100g Maltesers

50g white chocolate (chopped or chips)

- Melt together the butter and dark chocolate on a low heat until smooth.

- Remove from the heat and add the condensed milk, ground almonds and the Horlicks, mix well. Add the sifted flour and a pinch of salt and give it a good hard stir. This is where you'll need to give it a bit of elbow grease and use those tuck shop lady arms :)

- Place in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes (no longer!).

- While the mixture is still pliable, smash the Maltesers and add them to the mix along with your white chocolate. Mix it all together, making sure all the goodies are distributed evenly.

- Preheat your oven to 170 C or 325 F.

- Divide the mixture into 24 evenly sized balls - roughly a little bit smaller than a golf ball (we got 23 out of the mixture). Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and squash the tops (you can freeze them at this point if you want ).

- Bake cookies for about 12 minutes or until they are chewy in the centre and firm on the edges.